Registration for 2010 Harpoon B2B

I admit it...the last two weeks have been depressing for me.

After my accident, I had a feeling that by the time I was all healed a second wave of bitterly cold winter would have its grip on New England. So here I sit today...about 90% healed...and the temperature outside is barely in the 20s with the 5-day forecast showing daily high temperatures barley in the 30s. Bummer, I just knew that would happen.

But what really is a bummer was trying to register for the extremely popular 2010 Harpoon B2B bike ride. I posted about this event last year (didn't ride it...just wrote about wanting to). The open registration was on Tuesday, 1/19, and the word on the street is that the open slots filled up in 3 minutes. Yes, I wrote that correctly...3 freakin minutes! Needless to say, I was not able to register.

The main problem with registering for this ride is that alumni get to register first for a whole week leading up to the start of the open registration. So basically, if you haven't participated in the ride in the past, you're pretty much locked out (although I do understand that registrations are transferable). Seems to me that this event is truly an exclusive club.

Here's an uplifting thought...a seed of an idea perhaps. Why not start another brewery to brewery (B2B) ride right here in Southeastern Massachusetts area. A friend of a friend of a blogger type ride! After all, there are three fine craft breweries all within a day's ride of each other in this area. I'm sure they wouldn't mind the publicity...and we all like good beer, right?

For reference purposes, the 3 micro-breweries are:

Coastal Extreme Brewing Company - Middletown, RI
Just Beer Brewing Company (formerly Buzzard's Bay Brewing Co.) - Westport, MA
Mayflower Brewing Company - Plymouth, MA

Hmm, a Mayflower Porter sounds good right about now!